Buh-bye, Elon
So Elon is headed back to the private sector after a star turn as chainsaw-in-chief and co-president. How did that work out, anyway?
“Musk’s original goal was $2 trillion in annual savings, downsized several times to the range of $500 billion. DOGE currently claims $175 billion in savings. But the House bill would formalize barely 5% of that.
“Those paltry cuts might not even pass the Senate, where there’s considerable, if unspoken, discomfort with the DOGE cuts, especially USAID. “DOGE has been more bark than bite,” budget analyst Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute recently told Yahoo Finance. “The actual [savings] figure is likely well short of $10 billion.”
“The reality of politics has revealed DOGE to be what many of its critics claim: a sham cost-cutting effort that leaves the worst aspects of the federal budgeting process unmolested. Every member of Congress claims jurisdiction over some little agency in the executive branch, and they’re not keen to have a vigilante like Musk swoop in to mess with their pet projects. Republicans included.”
DOGE has been more bark than bite
“Musk’s original goal was $2 trillion in annual savings, downsized several times to the range of $500 billion. DOGE currently claims $175 billion in savings. But the House bill would formalize barely 5% of that.
“Those paltry cuts might not even pass the Senate, where there’s considerable, if unspoken, discomfort with the DOGE cuts, especially USAID. “DOGE has been more bark than bite,” budget analyst Jessica Riedl of the Manhattan Institute recently told Yahoo Finance. “The actual [savings] figure is likely well short of $10 billion.”
“The reality of politics has revealed DOGE to be what many of its critics claim: a sham cost-cutting effort that leaves the worst aspects of the federal budgeting process unmolested. Every member of Congress claims jurisdiction over some little agency in the executive branch, and they’re not keen to have a vigilante like Musk swoop in to mess with their pet projects. Republicans included.”
DOGE has been more bark than bite
I could be wrong but I don’t recall Elon Musk or anyone from DOGE ever claiming they’d be able to cut $1 trillion or even $500 billion in just 130 days. Elon is gone but hey, look at the bright side. Russ Vaught, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget and key player behind Project 2025 , is expected to take over the lead role at DOGE after managing much of the agency’s work during Musk’s transition.!!
May 20, 2025
“Elon Musk offered at least his fourth different promise about what his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will save on Friday as he appeared next to President Trump during an appearance to mark the end of his time as a special government employee.
I’m confident that over time we’ll see $1 trillion of savings, a trillion dollars of waste and fraud reduction,” Musk said Friday, pledging that his team’s work will continue and that he will stay involved even as he is formally leaving Washington, D.C.”
13 April 2025:
So with Musk’s legal 130-day term as a ‘special government employee’ set to expire today, and Democrats gunning for his departure by that date, this is a good opportunity to suspend disbelief and evaluate his success so far.
Musk’s stated goal as the (apparently informal) head of DOGE was to slash government spending and save American taxpayers money. Before the inauguration, he claimed he could cut $1 trillion from the federal budget before September 30 by ending “waste, fraud, and abuse” — already a downgrade from his $2 trillion promise on the campaign trail. He further claimed that “most of the work” required to make this happen would be done within 130 days.
As of May 26, DOGE’s online “wall of receipts” touts estimated savings of $175bn since the start of Trump’s term, or $1,086.96 per taxpayer. The problem is that this figure may simply be nonsense.
Maybe, you just forgot.
@Mike,
It’s quite likely that Elon and DOGE didn’t net any savings at all:
“Picking apart the “estimated savings” of $175 billion on the DOGE website, Tolan told me that less than half that figure is backed up with even the most basic documentation. That means it’s possible only even to start investigating about $32 billion of savings from terminated contracts, $40 billion of savings from terminated grants and $216 million of savings from terminated leases that DOGE claims.
“Plus, some of the specific terminations that are included in those numbers have no details at all. And Tolan has reported on the fact that DOGE’s tally has “been marred by various errors and dubious calculations throughout the entire time they’ve been releasing this info.”
*snip*
“Workers who generated revenue from the government have been fired, Stevenson points out. For example, staffing cuts at the IRS will mean the US brings in less revenue — but so will operating national parks short-staffed. Plus, a universe of litigation related to DOGE’s efforts to cancel contracts and fire workers seemingly without cause is percolating through courts.
“In total, estimates suggest that what has been spent to generate these cuts may be as great as the cuts. In the long run, it’s not clear that DOGE generated any savings,” she said.
“Max Stier, CEO of the Partnership for Public Service, has estimated in a back-of-the-envelope way that DOGE cuts could end up costing the US $135 billion simply because it will need to retrain and rehire elements of the work force that have been let go.”
https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/30/politics/doge-musk-government-savings
” . . . I don’t recall Elon Musk or anyone from DOGE ever claiming they’d be able to cut $1 trillion or even $500 billion in just 130 days.”
LOL! So over what time span do you think he meant? The end of Trump’s term? 2050? The heat death of the universe?